Predictors of patient-reported outcomes at discharge in patients with heart failure

It is well-established that heart failure has a negative impact on quality of life. However, little is known about patient-related predictors of health-related quality of life, anxiety and depression, symptoms and illness perception among patients with heart failure.

To study the association between patient-related predictors and patient-reported outcome measures at discharge from hospital in a cohort of patients with heart failure.

We used data from 1506 patients with heart failure, participating in the national DenHeart Survey of patient-reported outcome measures in patients with heart disease. The potential patient-related predictors included demographic, administrative, clinical and socioeconomic factors. The patient-reported outcome measures included six questionnaires: the Short Form-12, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the EuroQol five-dimensional, five-level questionnaire, the HeartQoL, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale. Data were linked to national patient registry data and medical records. We performed multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses.

In adjusted linear regression analyses we found that a length of hospital stay of >2 days was associated with worse scores across questionnaires, except for the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire. Higher comorbidity level was associated with worse scores across all questionnaires, whereas low social support was associated with worse scores across questionnaires, except for the physical domain of the Short Form-12 and the HeartQoL global score.

This study identified length of hospital stay > 2 days, a higher comorbidity level and low social support to be associated with worse scores across questionnaires at discharge from a cardiac-related hospitalisation in patients with heart failure.